Is DEI crushing it at Cannes Lion? This National Inclusion Week, we wanted to bring you a fresh POV on Thursday, September 30, 4-5pm.

With one of the most progressive leaders in the DEI space, Efrain Ayala, Global Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Marketing Excellence at Reckitt, we trawled through the Cannes Lion winners from 2021.

Here's what we uncovered:

When you look beyond the Glass Lion, you'll see the Grand Prix for Innovation, Brand Experience, Film and more were awarded to work where is DEI embedded in campaigns. For us, this goes beyond 'representation'. This is about DEI at the heart of business strategy - and it IS smashing awards, hands down.

What does it mean to be a creative/marketing leader in 2021? Attend a day where every speaker will leave you with three actionable tips on how to drive growth for your leadership skills, your team, tech, campaigns and your own perspective…

#AdlandCommits: did we progress? All leaders know accountability is critical. So we’re asking all AdlandCommits CEOs to take 15 minutes to complete this survey (promise - it's short).

When we first completed this survey in October, we had over 109 respondents - about 30% of signatories. Right now, we have 23 respondents. We want to match our original response as we go out to report on progress in time for the anniversary of George Floyd’s brutal murder, May 25.

In the George Floyd case, justice has been served in the courtroom, but this is only one incident, and only one part of seeing justice served. The basis of #AdlandCommits is that this is a movement, not a moment. The work of accountability goes on day after day.

With this in mind, we’re asking all signatories to

In a week that has seen the dismissal of structural racism in a government-led report, this week, we’re applauding David Lammy more than ever. When the disgraceful Sewell report came out, Lammy said this: 'For my own mental well-being I am not doing media interviews on the race commission today. Like so many in Britain’s Black community I’m tired! Tired of the endless debate about whether structural racism exists with little desire to actually address it. We are being gaslighted.'

We are proud to have David Lammy appearing on our stage at RISE this year to talk about why representation matters. When asked 'How can the creative industries tackle the inequality we have seen since Covid-19 pandemic began?' David responded…

Sandwiched between International Womens Day and Mothers day we saw Meghan and Harry were excluded, unprotected and blindsided by racism from the 'institution'. Meghan became 'race hate click bait' for the British press and we saw a woman left with no help when she said she was having suicidal thoughts. THEN we heard about Sarah Everard and Labour MP Jess Philips read out the names of 118 dead women in parliament, revealing how violence against women and girls is an epidemic, we discovered 97% of women in the UK have been sexually harassed and we saw a #CrimeBill, which does more to protect statues than women. Honestly, we think…

nternational Women’s Day 2021 is particularly poignant this year, as March 8th marks the return to schools across the UK and the end of the impossible task of attempting homeschooling, while for many, simultaneously trying to hold down a full-time job.

As the Creative Equal’s CreativeComeback alumni (a returners programme, backed by Diageo and D&AD) of 2020 began exploring creative ideas for IWD2021, it was hard to ignore the bitter irony that March 8th will leave many working mothers across the industry equal parts exhausted and exhilarated. The radical act we want for IWD is...

MAY 13TH 2021. RISE GOES VIRTUAL...

Represent your perspective. Represent ALL your customers in your marketing. Yes, our sell-out conference is BACK - and it's online (plus you can purchase tickets in collaboration with AdWeek - yes, such a great deal!), with Campaign as our media partner.

Insight from our Equality Standard data tells us 19% of creative directors are women (when we started it was 12%); yet 1-3% are ethnically diverse women. Year-on-year this conference is the game-changer. This day is designed to create the next generation of leaders and give you the skills, tools and know-how to rewire culture change in advertising for inclusion. We explore what makes an outstanding leader, how to have brave conversations as well as topics like 'what's keeping CMOs up at night?'

FIRST SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED…

Stay home. Save lives. Spot the stereotypes. We can’t believe this was approved. Before (yes, this is real and was taken down): a piece of sexist advertising from the UK government in 2021 showing their bias in how they perceive women's roles (and how women are bearing the burden of the pandemic). After: video producer Kim French gives it a fresh, progressive take... Yes, this would have fallen foul of the ASA's guidelines and it…

We have lived through 2020, a year of radical transformation. We are living through massive societal shifts. Just when we were hoping to usher in a kinder 2021, white supremacists stormed Capitol Hill. The UK went into another hard lockdown: Unicef delivered food parcels to families in Manchester, which was unheard of. The impact of this change has deepened inequities. Take, for example, working women. In the US, the workforce lost 140,000 jobs in December (Forbes), but women lost a net of 156,000 jobs while men gained at net 16,000 jobs. In other words, women accounted for 100% of the labour market's first month of losses. So, what do we hold on to in 2021?

We are back ON! Rescheduled from March, we bring NYC our first remote version of CreativeComeback, in partnership with Diageo and our creative leadership partners, D&AD. This two-week bootcamp will run from January 25 till February 4, for 8 days in total from 9-3pm. To wrap up the event, the phenomenal Cindy Gallop, ex-BBH chairwoman and Founder MakeLoveNotPorn, will share her advice. So far, 72&Sunny, Fig, Anomaly and Oliver are…

In 2019, 97% of CEOs in Adland were white. Accelerate is here to change that. Our hugely successful first cohort have just graduated, and we're kicking off the second cohort on January 19. Our data identified the unique career development needs of multicultural talent. This created the foundations of 'Accelerate'. Led byLydia Amoah(our Learning & Cross-cultural Director) and with an advisory board of industry titans, this programme's not one to miss.

Today is the start of Black History Month. The collective's work with #AdlandCommits is firmly on the government's radar. We aim to celebrate Black excellence within every company and throughout the wider industry. This month (and every month) is a time to educate, build awareness and keep companies accountable. Has #AdlandCommits made an impact?

This is a movement, not a moment. We all have the power to create transformation, one person, one piece of work (product or service), one company at a time to become anti-racist. Three leaders will bring us actions they have taken personally and as leaders within their companies to create change. They'll give you three takeaways to action yourself. Listen, learn and talk to our stellar line up: Marco Bertozzi, VP, EMEA Sales and Multi-Market Global Sales, Nancy Lengthorn, Head of Inclusion, WPP and Sarah Jenkins, Managing Director, Saatchi&Saatchi

In this Volkswagen ad, a white hand flicks a black man away from a new yellow Volkswagen into a café called 'Petit Colon' - the little colonist. After an outcry, the German carmaker instantly pulled the ad. When did this happen? Third week of May, 2020. The question is: who saw it? Who signed it off? Who didn't blow the whistle? This ad aired. We can’t believe it. You know what else?

#AdlandCommits. Against a backdrop of uncertainty, the past few months have seen a global explosion of hate crimes targeting Black people. We have witnessed horrific images of African communities in China being subject to exclusion and violence; Black key workers in the UK exposed to high-risk situations and the physical assault of Belly Mujinga; in the US we have seen the violent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. Breonna Taylor, as for many, is especially traumatic: her killers still haven’t been charged. It's time for deep structural change from within. We have work to do.

We all know that returning to the office won’t be the same as it was months ago. With furlough now extended until later in the year, get ahead and plan your 'future of work' strategy now. Your staff will have different expectations of their line managers, teamwork and working practices. How can you keep your top talent engaged and driving forward, up-skill your managers to build productive teams, and successfully reintegrate your furloughed staff?

There’s been the good, the bad and the downright ugly. On the phenomenal side, our Present Yourself Online workshop featured the phenomenal Emmy-nominated guest host Jeff Conway from Chicago, with guests from Malta, Germany and France. Lockdown has made inclusion possible from across the globe. On the bad side, well….

This week, we tackled one of the main challenges facing all line managers right now: remote working inclusively. We - along with our panel of industry experts - had a frank discussion about the ways we can manage the complex switch to remote working.

We wanted to tackle a topic many parents and carers are struggling with right now. Juggling home, children and home school is an impossible task. Nicky Kemp - Managing Editor of BITE at Creative Brief - moderated our panel discussion. She shared her stories of parenting and working, as well as invaluable advice for both employers and individuals for setting their own boundaries. Nicky reminded us to leave the guilt at the door - parents and carers are facing enough pressure without comparisons or expectations weighing down on them.

Last week, we got ZoomBombed in our ‘Ask Us Anything’ webinar. We were subject to some disturbing images and Lydia Amoah, our Learning and Cross Cultural Director, suffered invasive, serious racial abuse, now reported to the Metropolitan Police. We were blindsided, and…